Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list(a)wfi-inc.com> wrote: If they've actually been told not just to avoid such things, but also why (the potential dangers), and they still do it, I'm not going to shed very many tears for them. If they're too young to understand the danger, they need to be supervised.

Mike Ford wrote: And therein lies the problem. Some people remain children from birth to death regardless of the number of years. At some point, people need to take responsibility for their own actions rather than add to the burden society seems all too willing to take on and carry.

Neither is expecting all parents to be perfect all the time. Children are precious enough to do all that we practically can though. One of the newsgroups on software for kids I used to follow had a frequent poster with a tribute to their lost child as a .sig file, and it used to tear me up reading that.

On Thu, Feb 10, 2000 at 06:35:26PM -0000, Eric Smith wrote: I agree... My parents covered all this stuff -- they told us not to dig inside snowbanks because a plow might come, we all wore seat belts way before there was a law (bicycle helmets too), our parents strictly enforced what we could and couldn't watch on TV so there was no need for V chips (I can't believe they're making us pay for censorship devices now just because some absentee parent religious freaks got upset), they never let us skate on the Charles at all, and we never had enough cash of our own to buy porn or cigarettes or anything else. These days parents teach their kids that *nothing* is their own responsibility, the whole world is supposed to be idiot-proofed for them. It's been a slow year here in upstate NY so far, usually by now the TV newscasts are peppered with people blowing each other away in hunting "accidents" (beer + bullets = ?), along with an equal number of geniuses who like to go snowmobiling at night on not-really-frozen lakes, optionally playing chicken with each other while they're at it (see, the goal is to crash and *then* drown). The reporters present these incidents as if they're tragedies but ya just gotta laugh, Darwin would be so proud. Yet people always want to find someone else to blame. John Wilson D Bit

----- Original Message ----- From: John Wilson <wilson(a)dbit.dbit.com> To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 8:29 AM Subject: Re: Dumpster stories! One of the big auction houses that handle a LOT of ex-govt stuff in Adelaide S.A. is Evans & Clarke. After their computer/office eqpt auctions, they ENCOURAGE people to take stuff from the dumpsters they provide for patrons to ditch stuff they don't want out of a batch. (sometimes you buy a pallet of cruft to get a single item you really want, usually for minimal money) I got a Webster Multiport to let my Macs talk to my Netware server and the internet because it was in a batch of junk that went for $5 along with a printer that was all the buyer really wanted. (He gave me the Multiport - he didn't know what it was and had no use for it when I told him) I got a big shock when I found it was worth serious money. E&C have no problem with people snatching whatever they like out of the dumpsters afterwards, as they are paying money to get it taken to a landfill/scrapper otherwise. Sensible. I have some monitors (Sampo 19" hires mono) that the Multiport guy saw them in the bin, asked E&C if he could take one, and was told to go for it and take all he wanted. So he grabbed half a dozen, and I wound up with a few. The big lead smelter here are a bit tougher, you need a business name, (I have one) and you needed a s/h dealers license (until the govt scrapped them) and have to go through their salvage section to find stuff you want. But you can get it very cheap, I picked up some useful DEC stuff that way. (my first Vaxen - a 6310/8530 HSC based cluster came (One of) Heinleins Laws :- Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. Verbum Sap. Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Systems Manager Saint Mark's College

Upon the date 09:11 PM 2/11/00 +0001, Hans Franke said something like: -- snip -- Hoo boy, you'd have to ask . . . :-) That is a hot button among some folks over here. Anybody more articulate than me explain to the non-US folks this device used to censor certain TV programming from children? -Chris -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/

Even though one can't legislate against stupidity, people still try... Years ago, some guy walked through the spinning tail rotor of a helicopter (well, walked part way through :-) His family sued the manufacturer because it wasn't posted that this was dangerous... ...come on... just another case of someone unwilling to take proper responsibility for their actions... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com | | Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ p.s. "Think of it as evolution in action." :-)